Transmissions Issues After Wheel Alignment???

[jotam3]

How’s it going all. I have a 2018 Navigator that I bought used a few thousand miles ago. I bought it with 70k miles and it’s now approaching 74k. Drove the truck for a few thousand miles and it drove perfect. I brought it to get an alignment at a national chain place. The tech said once it was aligned, when he turned the car on the car would instantly turn the steering wheel about 10° counterclockwise (but the wheels remained straight). He said it was caused by the electronic steering system. So he connected their computer to it to try to correct it, but he wasn’t able to. They suggested I bring it to the dealer to get the steering corrected as their computer wasn’t recalibrating it.

So I left the shop, driving straight meant the steering wheel was turned a little to the left. However, as soon as I left the shop, I instantly felt the transmission shifting completely differently. Very rough shifting from first to second, and occasionally slipping from 2nd to 3rd or 3rd to 4th. I brought it back to them a few days later and they assured me it was impossible it was anything they did as the alignment isn’t at all related to the transmission (I agree with that statement obviously, but I’m at a loss as the truck arrived to the shop perfect and left with a bad-shifting transmission). But, they went ahead and scanned it for me and checked, and confirmed they found nothing electrical related to this issue. However, when I picked up the truck this time, they had somehow corrected the steering wheel’s angle, straight was now straight, so they did something.

Next I brought it to the dealership and asked them to run diagnostics on it, they say nothing comes up for them and they believe it’s a transmission failure. I asked them to reflash the 21B10 recall back to factory under the 21N03/21N08 service call, they seemed skeptical and said it wasn’t related (they thought I was nuts, but I’ve read a few people post about their transmission shifting different after the 21B10), but I convinced them to do it anyway. They said they did it, but that it caused no difference. Their opinion is that it’s a transmission issue, they wanted to charge me $2,000 to remove the transmission pan and inspect for metal shavings. I held off.

So, I ended up doing it myself, I removed the transmission pan and then the filter. Fluid looks great, no metal shavings or any other particles. Everything looks very clean. I replaced all seals, gaskets, and filter and filled her up with fresh fluid. No change at all, same exact shifting issues.

I’ve plugged her up to an Autel OBD2 computer and scanned all the modules on it and all coming up clear, no codes.

I’m at a loss now and don’t know what to try next. Anyone have any ideas or hear of anything similar to this?

 

[BMW2FORD]

I’m not sure how sensitive the Fords are but almost all cars with traction control have a steering wheel angle sensor usually in the rack or on the steering shaft. If the car thinks the wheel is turned, it can delay or soften shifts to avoid a traction problem. I’d see if you can find someone to reset the steering angle sensor since how they got the wheel straight means they might have just removed the steering wheel and reinstalled so it looks straight to a driver but not to the traction control unit. If the fluid is clean, that’s good news. Before going crazy to get the steering angle sensor aligned, it can also be it needs to be readapted. Who knows if they disconnected the battery or left the key on too long and voltage went way low or something during the alignment and it lost its adaptions. I’d say next step would be to refill it with new fluid and a filter, reset the adaptions again by leaving the battery disconnected for about an hour then drive it softly until initial it warms up then use Sport mode and Manual mode up and down the gears a few times with light to normal throttle and see how it feels. Don’t go heavy throttle for at least 100 - 200 miles until it fully adapts. If that doesn’t work then see if the dealer can reset the steering angle straight ahead position.

 

[jotam3]

I’m not sure how sensitive the Fords are but almost all cars with traction control have a steering wheel angle sensor usually in the rack or on the steering shaft. If the car thinks the wheel is turned, it can delay or soften shifts to avoid a traction problem. I’d see if you can find someone to reset the steering angle sensor since how they got the wheel straight means they might have just removed the steering wheel and reinstalled so it looks straight to a driver but not to the traction control unit. If the fluid is clean, that’s good news. Before going crazy to get the steering angle sensor aligned, it can also be it needs to be readapted. Who knows if they disconnected the battery or left the key on too long and voltage went way low or something during the alignment and it lost its adaptions. I’d say next step would be to refill it with new fluid and a filter, reset the adaptions again by leaving the battery disconnected for about an hour then drive it softly until initial it warms up then use Sport mode and Manual mode up and down the gears a few times with light to normal throttle and see how it feels. Don’t go heavy throttle for at least 100 - 200 miles until it fully adapts. If that doesn’t work then see if the dealer can reset the steering angle straight ahead position.

Thanks for replying. I did go ahead and fill it with fresh fluid, replaced the filter, as well as all seals and gaskets. Unfortunately, even driving her softly after that it's having the same shifting issues. And to clarify, these are slight shifting issues, it DUMPS into second had, and when it slips between 2-3 or 3-4 it slips hard, RPMs rev up and all.

I could try the steering angle sensor as I can't think of what else to try. As for the shop removing and replacing the steering wheel, I don't think they did as it wasn't there long enough. In fact, when I leave the alignment shop the second time I called them back to ask how they fixed the steering wheel angle and the guy said "we didn't do anything we just scanned the computer for codes." Now, he may have just said that because they don't want to be blamed if there ends up being an issue with the car, but he didn't realize they fixed the steering wheel.